General

Many of you know that, as part of the recent, economy-driven changes at the Houston Chronicle, Mark Carreau no longer works for the paper. Mark covered the space beat for more than two decades with incredible dedication and attention to detail. Despite the loss of Mark, the Chronicle remains committed to covering NASA and human […]
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NASA Joe Acaba, former science teacher, gets breathtaking view of Earth while perched on tip of space station’s robot arm Not everything went their way Monday, but two math and science teachers turned NASA astronauts demonstrated the right stuff as they joined forces for a stroll outside the international space station. The 6&frac12;-hour spacewalk was […]
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Update 5:15 p.m., CDT — Today’s spacewalk by Ricky Arnold and Joe Acaba drew to an official close at 5:04 p.m., CDT, after 6 hours, 27 minutes. “Thanks for the hard work out there, very professional,” Discovery skipper Lee Archambault told his colleagues. “You left the space station in much better shape than it was […]
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Spacewalkers Ricky Arnold and Joe Acaba were unable to pry loose a stuck external storage platform on the space station’s long solar power system truss this afternoon. The two men pulled and hammered. Using the hammer, they managed to free the locking pin that jammed when Acaba and fellow spacewalker Steve Swanson attempted to install […]
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Discovery astronauts Ricky Arnold and Joe Acaba, two former high school science teachers, have finished the first of the duties on today’s spacewalk. The 30-minute task took Acaba on a breathtaking ride across the middle of the 356 foot long orbital outpost while standing on tip of the station’s robot arm. “The Earth looks beautiful,” […]
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Discovery astronauts Ricky Arnold and Joe Acaba, two former high school science teachers, have started today’s spacewalk, the last outing planned during the shuttle’s visit to the international space station. The excursion, expected to last six to seven hours, got under way at 10:37 a.m. CDT. “Take your time. Enjoy it and do good work,” […]
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NASA Ricky Arnold, left, Joe Acaba, former high school science teachers, join forces for Monday’s spacewalk The Discovery astronauts took steps on Sunday to avoid a menancing 4-inch piece of Chinese space junk that threatened to zip close to the international space station during Monday’s spacewalk. The fragment from a rocket that shattered a year […]
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3 p.m., CDT Update — NASA saying an avoidance maneuver will not be necessary. The shuttle will change the station’s orientation by firing steering thrusters. The change in orientation will create an additional amount of drag. The drag will lower the station’s altitude enough to keep it away from the debris threat. The 10 astronauts […]
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Update at 12:50 p.m., CDT — Mission Control has called off further troubleshooting with the urine processing part of the space station’s water recycler for the day. It functioned as hoped during Saturday’s dry run. Today’s test run to reclaim drinking water from urine did not. There appears to be a blockage, or perhaps a […]
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